Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is Empirical Asset Management LLC’s Largest Position

Empirical Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 288,961 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock after selling 5,108 shares during the quarter. Apple makes up 8.4% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Apple were worth $67,328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AAPL. Verus Financial Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Apple by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Verus Financial Partners Inc. now owns 16,929 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $3,566,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Brown Financial Advisory grew its stake in Apple by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Financial Advisory now owns 1,364 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Apple by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Core Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,968 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC raised its position in shares of Apple by 0.7% during the second quarter. Lowery Thomas LLC now owns 7,607 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Apple by 1.1% during the second quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 4,505 shares of the iPhone maker’s stock worth $949,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 60.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 223,986 shares of Apple stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.46, for a total transaction of $50,275,897.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3,280,180 shares in the company, valued at approximately $736,269,202.80. The trade was a 6.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Luca Maestri sold 59,305 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.52, for a total value of $13,433,768.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,416,137.76. The trade was a 35.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 408,170 shares of company stock valued at $92,007,745. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Apple Price Performance

Apple stock opened at $242.65 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.67 trillion, a P/E ratio of 39.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.23. Apple Inc. has a one year low of $164.07 and a one year high of $242.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $229.59 and its 200 day moving average is $220.74.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The iPhone maker reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.04. Apple had a net margin of 23.97% and a return on equity of 152.94%. The business had revenue of $94.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Apple Inc. will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.

Apple Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AAPL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $265.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $245.00 target price on shares of Apple in a report on Monday, September 9th. New Street Research reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $256.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Apple to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apple has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.68.

Apple Profile

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.